Nvidia is reportedly in talks to provide a roughly $250 billion financial guarantee for OpenAI, tying the chipmaker more closely to the costly infrastructure race behind artificial intelligence.
The proposed backing is linked to a planned 10-gigawatt data center campus in southern Ohio being developed by SoftBank’s energy unit, according to people familiar with the matter cited in the report. The guarantee would help OpenAI lease the site and support construction financing.
The project could ultimately cost more than $500 billion, including Nvidia chips needed to equip the facilities, the report said. A first phase delivering about 800 megawatts of power is targeted for completion in 2028.
For investors, markets are watching whether AI infrastructure spending can keep attracting cheap capital at such a scale. The reported structure would help lenders get more comfortable with OpenAI, which does not have an investment-grade credit rating, by adding Nvidia’s backing to the financing package.
The guarantee under discussion would cover lease and construction financing, not purchases of Nvidia chips. A separate financing arrangement for OpenAI’s chip purchases is also being discussed and could total about $350 billion, according to the report.
Nvidia shares were shown down 0.92% at $206.84 in market data published alongside the report, even as the company remains central to the AI spending cycle that has driven demand for advanced processors.
The talks have not produced final terms, and the deal could still fall apart. For now, the reported discussions put a simple question in front of markets: how much balance sheet support AI builders will need to keep expanding at this pace.
